Last Thursday we started to see a big spike in our trials – and in the requests to test the e-mail module.

We quickly learned that a fellow software company (IQTell) was planning to shut down at the end of July.

I don’t know the IQTell team personally but I am a big fan of GTD (more on this, and how it influenced a lot of what Feng Office is, on a subsequent post), which a large portion of their community embraces. And when a fellow software company closes down it is never received as good news as we understand too well the challenges of building a successful software company – even if you have a passionate and loyal customer base. And from my conversations with IQTell users they certainly have a passionate community, IQTell delivered excellent support, and its team built an amazing product. We wish everyone in the IQTell team the best of success in whatever endeavors they chose to pursue next.

Many of these users share the same vision we have for the product the team and me have been building for almost 10 years. So for those IQTell users who would like to join us we are offering a 50% discount if they come over before IQTell officially shuts down services at the end of July.

For those IQTell users evaluating Feng Office (you can kick off your own free, 30 day trial here) we are collecting their needs and prioritizing their requests. Our goal is to get us to feature parity as quickly as possible. We will be sharing our plans and additional information with IQTell users on subsequent posts here and through other channels.

And what is more amazing and powerful is that this information is not just a data record. It is data you can work with. You can list, sort and filter information using this data.

You can make better and more useful reports. Easily and efficiently.

With the new features and improvements on custom properties, lists can now be sorted and grouped using your custom properties. Data entry can be optimized by placing the properties in the right position, select whether they are mandatory or not, and be placed in different sections of the form.

Custom properties are an essential tool for Feng Office consultants and administrators setting up a business solution. It is not just an enhancement. It is an essential piece for building the best platform for a business.

*Note: you need to request a special plugin to be installed on your account to be able to try custom properties on dimensions.

Object sub-types: Even more power for your data

The latest addition to the Feng Office set of building blocks is object sub-types.

Object sub-types are, in fact, the last piece of the puzzle that allows Feng Office to be the most flexible Business Process Collaboration platform out there.

We just talked about how every object can have its custom properties. For example, you can add a special field for a task (for example, an id used by another system, a special category that is business-specific, etc).

But what if you need different types of tasks? Or documents?

This is very common in processes that require a lot of data gathering.

You can have a document for a type of process that requires a number of meta-data being recorded (Example: measuring a field, preparing a case, gathering info for a job order, enter who gathered it, etc).

Each type of document (Or tasks, or notes) will have its own set of fields.

And this is what Object sub-types allows.

You should try it. You will be amazed at its power.

*Note: you need to request a special plugin to be installed on your account to be able to try this.

Better filters and search

Searching for specific information is now easier thanks to a cool new feature.

Want to narrow down the search for archived, trashed canned and overview lists objects? No problem, just do it with the new Object Type Filter.

Advanced billing

You can now define different hourly rates for different types of work, clients, projects, service types… even for the same person!

Not only can you make financial reports out of the different rates for your projects, clients, project portfolios, etc. You can also generate the invoice and/or expenses associated to that work. Magic, eh?

*Note: We call this the “Advanced Billing” module, as we decided to still support the more basic Billing features available on the Community Edition.

Shift key function for lists selection

Looking for a more agile way of selecting list items? The shift key function for bulk selection is finally here!

Other improvements and fixes

Other improvements and fixes featured in version 3.4 include:

UX improvements on the Overview tab.

New plug-ins for new -optional- dimensions (Available for the Enterprise Edition).

Allowing (if permissions are set) users to enter time for other users in the time tab.